One of the basic reasons for developing an app by a business is to help its brand development, by creating awareness among a wider audience and gaining new customers that ultimately bring more revenues to the company. But, companies cannot get complacent by just creating an app and releasing it in the market. Branding consultants suggest using app monetization strategies to make an app profitable and here are some of the bankable monetization methods and their pros and cons.

Paid downloads: In this method of app monetization, your app will generate money for you as and when a user downloads the app through an upfront fee. This is a bit risky as most people hesitated to download paid apps and so, according to the experts from branding firms, the pricing has to be apt for the product delivered. The most interesting aspect in this method is the quick span in which you can make money on every download. Although the users who download the app remain loyal and use the app because they have paid upfront for the app, there is always strong competition in the market from the makers of free apps. Another downside of this method is that there will not be any further opportunities to earn apart from the initial download fee.

In-App advertising: This method can be seen frequently in many mobile apps wherein the apps’ target is to accomplish a huge customer database that is sorted and sold to other parties to make money. The buyers of the data from you will place targeted ads in your app. Corporate branding services professionals opine that although this method brings in more users quickly as people in general like free apps, there is always a possibility that the users get distracted and annoyed by the frequent and irrelevant ads for them.

In-app purchases: This is a method where an additional feature or level is made available to the users of the app through payment. However, it has to be ensured that the original app even without the additional features should be fully functional and the additional purchase should only enhance the user experience, say the branding consultants. A big disadvantage in this method is that there is no guarantee that users will buy the additional features, which fluctuates your revenues greatly and even from what you earn, a chunk would be taken by the app stores.

In-app subscriptions: This strategy, popularly referred to as a freemium method, offers the app for free but with only basic features and certain features are gated which need to be paid for to be unlocked. The goal behind this strategy is to acquire the maximum number of users and engage them in such a way that they are ready to pay for some additional features. Though this method is beneficial to attract a large user base and keep them hooked to the app, the challenge lies in providing a balance between the free and paid features so as to not annoy either of the customers.

It is not enough for the companies to just create and launch mobile apps, but it is all the more necessary to monetize the apps to profit from them. Get in touch with one of the best branding firms to assist you in choosing the right kind of strategy for your business app.